Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP and his Senior Clinical Advisor, Professor Sir Norman Williams visited Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals on Friday 15th September to discuss patient safety with around 40 members of staff.
The event kicked off with a presentation from Trust Medical Director, Dr David Fluck, who described the patient safety journey taken by the Trust. He said: “Since introducing our ‘4 Ps’ – Patients First, Personal Responsibility, Passion for Excellence and Pride in our Team – around eight years ago we’ve been on a journey to improve patient safety. Key to that is enabling the right culture at our hospitals – one of openness, transparency and mutual support – where colleagues feel able to raise concerns, report incidents and share learning from mistakes.
We’ve made some great progress with this and I was pleased to share some examples with Jeremy – including our work to improve the early identification and treatment of sepsis and to reduce the number of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers. However, we are not complacent and know there is always more to do.”
Jeremy Hunt went on to share his own journey, experiences and reflections on patient safety. He described the stories of some patients and their families which had really struck a chord, leading him to make patient safety one of his biggest priorities.
Jeremy said: “It was a pleasure to meet staff at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals and hear about their patient safety initiatives and drive to embed transparency at the heart of the Trust. I was impressed by their work to create a culture of openness where staff are supported to speak up, helping to achieve our ambition of making the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world.”
Chief Executive, Suzanne Rankin, said: “We were really pleased to welcome Jeremy and Professor Williams to the Trust and for the opportunity to share our patient safety journey and achievements with them. That journey continues and it was good to hear Jeremy talk about the national context and a desire to share learning more quickly and more widely across the healthcare sector.”
Pictured above are Theatres Team Leader, Leynie Lugtu; Consultant Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon, Mr Kevin Newman; Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP and Theatre Practitioner, Zu Min Zhag.
